Florahh
Second time around enjoyment
I actually watched this three years ago and didn’t have too big an impression, though I can’t pinpoint why exactly. Rewatching it though, I can now offer an overview as sadly, maybe not too many people gave it a chance.Age gap dramas are risky as it’s a good chance of hit or miss. In my opinion on this one, it’s a hit. WU Jin Yan, as Bai Xiao Lu, I feel acted her role exactly as scripted. She’s too curious which gets her in path of ML’s cases, but causes him heart stopping concern of course. She cares so much for him and the endangerment of his job she wants to help and even protect him, which of course causes opposite results. She’s innocent, annoying, clutzy, ditzy yet, adorably cute that Zhou Yuan, played by Guo Xiao Dong, can’t help but fall for. Chemistry was enough to make their relationship believable, which of course was the cherry on top of this undercover cop genre. Great ending.
Whatever else people may of complained about in the police stints of it, I didn’t see it. I mean there are plot holes and there are more plot holes in just about every single drama. This wasn’t perfect, some situations maybe your brain couldn’t get around. Nothing that bad you can easily improvise. OST was fine. My second rewatch. Third might be a charm but too much to see so we’ll see. Hehe. Give it a try.
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Just Beautiful
There's already great detailed reviews so mine will be short. I finished 10 episodes subbed and watched rest raw because I was so mesmerized by the story. For me, I love the development of the story where we are introduced to the most precious innocent relationship of the princess and wolf boy. Their scenes on the mountain, happy go free discovery of nature, self, and adoration of friendship is just memorizing. She teaches him about love of a human to human and when he innocently puts his head on her shoulder to mimic love and she pats his head for approval, it's like my heart stopped for such a capture. The separation was to save him and that has you tearing up. Reunification was bittersweet and then from there a rollercoaster of highs and lows. All within the first ten episodes you will experience so much emotions that you won't turn away even if you wanted to; it's an incredibly moving story. The connection to our emotions is what keeps us glued in. I have never experienced anything like it so quickly with a story that though i have caught ending results, I didn't care. (I usually shut down if I know something beforehand). EVERYONE did such a remarkable job (particularly leads) I wanna thank them personally for powerfully moving me. I loved it and you will too. I've seen lots of excellent c-dramas of 2020. This one would sit with two others on top. Please watch and give this production your two thumbs up!Was this review helpful to you?
Lucky stars counted
I’m not sure why I’ve put off watching this although I’ve come across it so many times. I count myself lucky because i finally did and totally enjoyed it. Here’s why:First, I’m a sop for romance and this story has a great one. So as not to spoil it for you, I just want to give brief highlights.
ML has endured the pain of guilt of something that happened which wasn’t his fault but nevertheless painful. FL is someone who desired to be a fashion designer but always felt she brought about bad luck. Their interactions weave a tale that may sound familiar in others you’ve read or watched. The pair that seemed to not get along journeyed on a path involving overcoming hurdles of self doubt, inner turmoil, but strong support for each other.
The cast. Jerry Yan. My goodness he’s a great actor. He has emotional scenes that you can’t help but be greatly affected because of his acting. He really gets into the role and his pain will probably be much more felt bc you can’t help but pity him as you practically feel his hurt. Yes he’s very handsome but I really enjoy his work to care about those things.
Shen Yue. I think this is my first drama watching her. She’s a budding good actress. I love her character, kind, considerate, fun, and devoted. She played her part well, nothing coy but just natural. I’m a new fan and her smile? Contagious.
Wei Zhe Ming. Now I do know this actor and one of my favorites. Though he was second lead, he was very much liked. His character was sort of sad but in the end, things worked out. Though it’s totally unfair to me not to list them all, every other cast members were great contributors to this made story. The parents of Shen Yues character were so wonderful. We all know and have seen real nasty selfish drama parents but here, in them at least, they showed how parents should be…kind, supportive. The friends of fl and their boyfriends were also so cute.
Note of warning. The common complaint from so many is the lack of clothes type worn by Jerry Lans character. Yeah, but so? Letting you know in advance if it’s gonna be a problem for you. To me, yes I noticed but I was too invested in the story itself not be a big deal. Whatever reason it was for lack, I’m sure it’s not actors fault. Or he’s like me, not caring how many times I wear something as long as I’m comfortable??
Second warning is age gap. I don’t know what it is that bothers people (of course they have right to their own) but the way these leads carried out their roles was nothing short of true love and adoration for each other. They were the perfect pair and no gap is in it except maybe In people’s twisted thinking. Let these two things not deter you. This is definitely worth the watch and spoiler…………..ending kiss to a happy couple. Oh yeah, NEVER FORGET, the ost, is so endearingly inserted throughout im humming it as i write. Thanks.
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Appreciation
Honestly, thanks to this show I got a glimpse into the world of talented people who plays music in an orchestra. I thought i wouldn’t like it simply because I’m not particularly interested in this type of genre. However, Lee Young Ae impressed me with her seriousness about her trade, her steely cold demeanor, and of course, her conducting. She’s mesmerizing to watch, and I appreciate the work put into the role (i read) so definitely deserves the watch. Supporting cast were great too. Overall it’s a great watch and I’m glad i did. Other reviews have great intakes on the story.Was this review helpful to you?
Ratings Disappointing for a GEM
This is actually my second time watching from two years ago via Covid. I only noticed the low ratings here so I want to give a review to add my support.We probably have our own lists of complaints about long dramas. Most common is that it got draggy, script, or producers went off skinny dipping along the way, etc. This one isn’t perfect and it has its share of eye rolling scenes (not lots). Here though is why, if it’s your first or you’re looking for a long drama.
I’m not a writer by anything close. However, based on what I would like in a story, this one is pretty good so credit heartedly to writer. It presents the background enough to entice your wanting to know the why and what. Then it slowly peels the layer to answer them. Each episode (104) packs it’s own power so that you are eager to know what happens in next. Each episode connects to what happens next. (Some dramas seems disconnected and leaves you frustrated). You’re absorbed with the characters either with heart flutter or boxing gloves. Leads faces almost the impossibility of ever getting together but theirs is one to cheer for. Children are involved that adds flavor to the story. I have yet to see a korean child actor that disappoints. The two here delivers. Warning though. There’s galore of adults that makes you question the sanity of humanity. Disappointing? Yes, but yeah they’re significant to the story. Villainess delivers to the tee I gotta give you that. In all, it’s a very well weaved connected story that all comes together for everyone to be put in its proper place.
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To the point
What I liked a lot about this is that there wasn’t wasted episodes on clarifying pasts, nor present. The present (relationship) came into play for leads and it progressed beautifully. We didn’t have to worry about it happening fast then the doom to come. There’s a hiccup but resolved quickly and favorably in such a way to strengthen the leads love.Cast are great. Kim Ok Bin, I was not familiar with, but I’m a fan. Her character is great, straightforward, and bad ass, literally. Yoo Teo, main guy is the matured actor in the act that is honest and kind. His bromance with his manager and best friend played by Kim Ji Woon is the kind of friendship we crave for.
I don’t want to make this long because so many have greatly reviewed this. I’m just adding on that is a great watch. Don’t let this one pass you by. You’ll miss out.
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It’s not the beginning….
I rate this very high because as I think about it, the story plot is not bad. Three different families, their struggles, their connection, brings a dynamic portrayal of life. In these families, it brings to light what is right and not in parents, and parenting. While it has the most frustrating and despicable side characters, it really opens the mind of some culture and how these things are acceptable. Thus, it helps some to draw the line and say, nope not in my life.Cast do a really good job. You hate them, their acting is very good. You love them, they’re doing a good job. That’s how you’re feelings fluctuate throughout. Throughout the story, as the families connect, disconnect, and bond, the build up to beautiful relationships is established. Leads are great. Their chemistry is real stuff, thus, no shyness in passionate kissing. It really is a big difference when actors are mature.
Here’s the best part. They wrap up everything beautifully. Don’t we all want that after investing so much time? The last episodes were so well done you forget you had wanted to throw your device so many times because of some people. The ending is well worth it. I only say I wouldn’t rewatch because there’s too many to watch. The leads scenes though after watching wide eyed stare females with closed lips dramas are definitely a must go back to. Great series.
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Underrated Please watch!
People have their own ways of watching a film thank goodness! I must keep this in mind while reading low reviews for this drama. I loved it on the whole though leaving some reservations for some minor disappointments.I liked the story. College art major couple meet, many tugs for him to open up to her very open adoration, cute moments, and then parting with misunderstanding. Seven years later, they meet again, etc. There’s a lot of complications they go through, the road to their happy ending (oops spoiler, sorry) not smooth. That is the bad part..those complications. It is overly, ridiculous, and bad timing. Timing because you get to a point where you think it’s wrapping up, boom here comes a twist, and another, and another.
The lead couple fits their role. George Hu really played his role well. He was cold when needed and warm when suited. This is his film where I feel he really portrays his maturity as an actor. Adi Kan is new to me but when she looks at someone and smiles, her warmth touches even the wicked (well it didn’t remotely for the antagonists) would melt. She was awesome as a student and then later year role. The side love interests of Hong Yao and Sharon Kwon was major in story but some twists to making her jealous of her best friend was irritating.
The chemistry was mature. Kisses of Hu and Kan were sweet and plenty enough as cdramas go. Their struggles to finally be a couple made this drama good. Without the said unnecessary twists, it’s really a unique love story so enjoy it for that. It’s one of the best endings I feel as well so it’s worth it if you’re looking for a beautiful love story. Music is music so if it moves you good. It’s there and it moved me, adding to feels of what’s happening.
I’d definitely rewatch it again as I loved the coming together of this couple. They are unforgettable!
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This review may contain spoilers
Delightful and Painful
Delightful: Roy Chiu! Though this was out many years ago, it is nevertheless a very fun light watch because of his ability to be comedic. He is very good at being funny it made this drama really entertaining. Two female leads, Alice Ke and Joane Tseng also were great (and irritating I must admit at times but is there ever a drama that doesn’t happen) adding to the intrigue. On top of the cast, the story highlighted young love trying to sort out feelings and uncertainties in relationships. Older love too have problems to be ironed out. Ordinary story with perfect casting to keep you rooting.Painful: got messy towards middle where writer tried too hard to create content to keep the amount of episodes. There were some very positive narratives but got buried in the resolution that went everywhere. It dragged a bit that it lost its cuteness when it should have climbed to crescendo.
Overall: it ended cute with kind of a weird finale that led to the proposal. Happy ending.
Noteworthy to mention that this drama has the most realistic sweet kisses and lots of it. In case you wanted to know^^~^^
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Don’t waste your time
Such potentials but the person writing this has got to be a very depressed person. The saving grace was the leads who were just pleasant to look at. This has the most repulsive characters that pretty much got their happy ending. When I think about the death of actor Lee Sun Kyun, this show gives an enlightenment of the toxicity of narrow mindedness and life of privilege that plagues the mindset. What horrible horrible characters. Specifically the mother daughter duo in this show. They harass, bully, threaten and openly too without repercussions.To be fair, this show also had some really nice characters. Acting was very good. Unfortunately, everything good was buried by the senseless actions of two characters. All the beautiful proses were also buried. I would find something else. You’d think after all these 122 episodes they would at least make it up in ending. Lousy and disappointing as well.
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This review may contain spoilers
Watch Something Else
Warning that this does contain spoilers because I just have no way of being nice to this story.Honestly, it has lots of potentials to be a great story but it became a mess as they tried to stretch it out. There’s these scenes of grandma in and out of dementia which was fine at beginning but it became regular, that it wasn’t cute anymore. It didn’t give any effective results of it so yeah, it became a drag. The main issue of female leads father as a murderer was a good plot until it was dragged out towards the end and it was like, so all that just for everyone to be one big family. Trust me, you’ll know what I mean when you watch. Female leads character was just terrible. She bowed, she got slapped, food thrown at, forced to divorce, openly dislike by mother in law and sister in law, that at end, they thought her the greatest thing they bout fell over to get her back in family. There was so much disdain and abuse of the poor and unfortunate from rich a***oles it’s disgusting that a society lives like that. Yes, we’ve seen it a lot in these chaebol dramas but I found this so intolerable.
The acting especially of Choi Soo Jong as father of main lead was really good, I could feel his every emotion in his complicated character. Sorry, I don’t mean to talk bad but female lead, Uee was just not up to par. I could see how her character is supposed to be meek because she’s poor but her facial withdrawn face throughout pretty much never changed throughout entire drama it was so boring. My gosh, it was so frustrating watching her. The actress Jung Jae Soon, adorable as she was could not save this mess. Props though to the snobbish evil ones because as always, their characters shine as bright neon on the hill as to how not to behave in any decent society, even if they’re filthy rich.
Writing was terrible. I think there was so much better plots to get out of situations here without giving bad people excuses to act awful towards others. I mean, we watch and want to come a2ay with something that is lasting and impactful to grow as a society. This show in the most, maybe ninety five percent of it made poor people so pathetic they don’t deserve to live in society and the empowerment to the rich continued until very end when had a light bulb moment of change.
Go ahead if you want to try. These after all are just personal reviews. I scoff that I hear this drama got lots of awards. I wish I never gave it any time of my day. Waste.
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A Winner
Admittedly, I haven’t watched too many over hundred episode dramas. However, I have tried a few and did lots of forwarding. With this one, with minimal forwards, I think it’s worthy of its length.Pros:
*It’s a pretty good family oriented story. A family with complications in relationships, personal as well as within. I thought the writer did a good job giving us a story that isn’t the first of its kind, however, it was moving. If a scene that is supposed to move you to tears doesn’t, it’s not well written or acted? This one has lots of moving themes that bring you to tears and afterthoughts.
*The elderly fathers/grandpas that become in-laws. Their acting was so good and pretty much stole the show. They were vital in the story and their acting was impeccable. The rich one of course is obnoxious and it takes the poor one to change him. You can get so mad at the character but smile at the person who is the character. I imagine the effort and laughter in pulling it through while filming.
*It’s like dividing the story in parts. For instance, first part was the romance of leads. Then came the part of opposers (his ex, her admirer) trying to break them up. Then it’s the sister in law and her true nature creating friction. Then it’s one of the dads and his struggle. It transitions well to keep story moving and flowing.
*Family. Many dramas pit brothers against each other. This one has brothers who truly care for each other. We see dramas with evil or let’s say screaming annoying parents. Besides the father of lead male who’s very grumpy and mean, others are kind and make efforts to bring unity. This was so refreshing and I like that a lot in this drama.
*Antagonists did their part to wreak havoc (his ex, her admirer). What’s good though is that their chapters ended pretty early instead of dragging us through their dirty to the end.
Cons:
*I felt that the FL acting was lacking. She was a boring character is maybe more accurate. She’s meek, mousey voice, and just plain boring. In beginning when she kicked out her leg to react at ML attitude, I thought she was gonna be bad**s. As it is, once she got the guy she was more or less insignificant. Lol. She’s kind, humble, gets talked over, etc. You know the kind too familiar (I’m poor so yeah, do as you will rich ones).
*The chapter on dad dragged a bit so I skipped a few episodes.
*It ended well, happy but if I was a producer I would have closed it in another direction. For its focus on the ending portion, even if it’s sad in a way, it would be most realistic. As it is, they opted to give us what we hope to see in dramas, ever ending happiness.
It’s tough to rewatch long dramas and there’s too many to catch up on anyways. If you’re looking though for a long one, this one delivers pretty good and I believe you’ll be satisfied.
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This review may contain spoilers
Male lead for the heart
If I just write a few sentences about the male lead, would that be okay? What about him? He hides his love for fl because of his work that could harm her. He has a boring sleepy facade about him (my description okay) which could be a good disguise to his line of work. However, he’s smart and very physical to handle the complexities of his job. He’s the mature, competent, down to business character I wish for in dramas. He’s dedicated to his love interest and has her in his best interest even when she’s silly, makes dumb decisions, and puts him in harms way due to those behaviors. I like it primarily for this. As is with stories during nation conflict, there’s lots to anticipate as story develops. It’s pretty good if it fits your mood.Was this review helpful to you?
Irritating antagonists will keep you tuning in
This is the first 100+ series I've seen and since I lost a lot of sleep over it, it's good enough to share with you so that you might want to invest your time if looking for a good long one.It's a roller coaster of an emotional series because the antagonists are super bad that you want to tune in just to see what their demise will be. Lol!
The storylines: *fraud and deception! The antagonists are very good, fooling everyone around them.
*late love: they thought they didn't need anyone, until they met in an unconventional way
*wanted and unwanted siblings: two loved, one denied
It's very engaging from the beginning on all the way to the end. It is meaningfully weaved so that you get a well organized story where every plotlines are covered til the end. One thing that you might ask yourself after watching this: Is it really possible for a human being to not have any love at all? I will leave it like that so you can find out. I also love that there is an elder in this drama who is like the pot of gold at the end of the storm. Throughout the series, he was wise, loving, and very patient so that even if everything is going crazy, he could be relied on to calm the storm. I loved Park Geum Hyung in this series as the grandfather. You hate his character in some dramas but in this one, I absolutely loved him.
On top of the central storylines, you will see talents of the cast. You will see their singing skills. In fact, you will be accustomed with the entire casts and their roles. There is definitely love here too. It is not perfect when you feel sometimes that dialogue in meaning seems repetitive but, it is well weaved together. Ending is very satisfying.
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The storyline was good but there were a lot of gaps. Too much twists, especially where the exes are concerned makes it more of irritation than adding to the intrigue of story.
The devotion of doctor was very sad...not because he was a g eat friend but because he deserved a love as well.
I was enmeshed. Wallace Chung is a very good actor and he played his role very well. Actually the entire cast were very convincingly good or evil. Bravo to them. This was very enjoyable and if you’re like me who likes strong leads and romance, you would enjoy this. Try it.
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